describe the emergence of the Christian community in Korea.
explain why Christianity gained more adherents in (South) Korea than in other East Asian nations.
To begin, create a document in which you have a chart similar to the one below. Use this as a foundation to document the information you need to record the timeline of Christianity in Korea.
Reading number and Title
Period being addressed
Three major (the power of three, sometimes you get two sometimes four) points drawn from this period
READING 1: ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN CHURCH
Excerpts from:
Clark, Donald. Christianity in Modern Korea. New York: The University Press of America,1986.
Kang, Wi Jo. Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: a History of Christianity and Politics.
Albany: SUNY Press, 1997.
The first Korean contact with Roman Catholicism is reported to have come through the Japanese
soldiers who invaded Korea in 1592. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent his troops to conquer
Korea, a Roman Catholic general, Konishi Yukinaga, was among them. About eighteen thousand
Catholic soldiers were in General Konishi’s division. The soldiers were Japanese converts, the
result of missionary work by St. Francis Xavier, who came to Japan in 1549, and his Jesuit
successors. The Japanese general also brought along a Jesuit missionary, Father de Cespedes.
However, it appears de Cespedes’ ministry was limited exclusively to the Japanese soldiers and
there is no evidence that it had any direct influence on the native Koreans (Kang, 1).
__
The Korean Church began with a small group of eighteenth-century Confucian scholars, who
found themselves out of favor with the government. Yi Pyok and his friends felt Korean
Confucianism could be invigorated through a clearer understanding of man’s relation to nature—
“the investigation of things.” Among the texts studied by these scholars was a smuggled copy of
The True Doctrine of the Lord of Heaven, a Chinese work by the seventeenth-century Jesuit
missionary Matteo Ricci. Ricci’s description of the Christian god seemed much like their idea of
the neo-Confucian Supreme Ultimate and they decided to learn more. This was risky. The Pope’s
condemnation of ancestor worship in neighboring China had scandalized Korean Confucians.
The church was therefore regarded as hostile to the Confucian order of the Chosŏn dynasty.
The scholars decided to send a representative to Peking. Yi Sunghun, was the son of a recently
appointed Korean envoy bound for China in 1783. They persuaded him to accompany his father,
find out everything he could and bring back books. Yi Sunghun did more: in Peking he became a
Christian himself and was christened Peter, a name suggesting his destiny as founder of the
Korean church. When he returned home in 1784, he carried books, crucifixes, images and
information about Christian rituals. Then he joined with Yi Pyok to found a small lay
congregation of Catholics. This was Korea’s first known Christian church (Clark, 5).
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.
1. Why do you think the first time Christianity entered Korea, it attracted no converts and had
basically no influence on the Korean people or society?
2. What is unique about how the first Christian church was established in Korea as compared to
the formation of early churches in other parts of the non-western world?
3. How might this unique start have continued to influence how Christianity is regarded in
Korea?
READING 2: GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY, 1780s–1880s
Excerpts from:
Cho, Kwang. “The Meaning of Catholicism in Korean History.” The Founding of Catholic Tradition in Korea, edited by C. S. Yu, 115-140. Ontario: Korean and Related Studies
Press, 1996.
Lew, Young Ick. A Brief History of Korea. New York: The Korea Society.
Christianity took root in Korea during the middle of the Chosŏn kingdom. This kingdom had
come to power in 1392 after overthrowing the weakened Koryŏ kingdom. Koryŏ, in addition to
having been overrun by the Mongols, was seen as removed from the people and corrupt.
Buddhism, the state religion under Koryŏ, was associated with this corruption: pampered
Buddhist monks served as advisers to the king and temples had amassed huge quantities of
wealth. When the Chosŏn kingdom came to power they nationalized the land of all but a few
Buddhist temples and severely limited the activities of Buddhist monks in cities and major towns.
Buddhist temples continued to exist in remote mountain areas but Buddhism was not longer used
by kings to legitimate their rule. In place of Buddhism, the Chosŏn leaders emphasized a strict,
intellectual brand of state sponsored Confucianism. It took time for Confucian beliefs and
cultural practices to trickle down to the common people, but by the eighteenth century Confucian
social practices were dominant in Korea. It was in this environment the first Catholic church was
formed in Korea
The earliest Christian converts in Korea were from the scholarly elite. However, this new
religion soon began to spread to other segments of Korean society. Christianity may have been
especially attractive to lower class Koreans, because, in addition to a promise of life after death
in heavenly paradise, Christian teachings made reference to the equality of all people before god.
For instance, one western missionary recorded an account of Hwang Ilgwang, an early convert to
Christianity who came from the class of butchers, one of the lowliest groups in Korean society.
He was so amazed that “believers who came from the yangban (noble or 'gentry') class treated him equally
and accorded him the honor of entering the room and taking a seat” that, supposedly, he
exclaimed for himself there were two paradises, one on earth because of the manner in which he
was treated despite his background, and the other in heaven (Cho, 118).
Women made up a large portion of the early Christians converts. They were able to participate in
the religious and social life of the church. Furthermore, the Catholic church’s condemnation of
forced marriage, of husbands taking a concubine or a second wife, and its favorable view of
allowing widows to remarry, might have made the Catholic church seem a welcoming place to
some women.
The Chosŏn government however, viewed the new Catholic Church as dangerous. Christianity
was outlawed through a special royal edict in 1785. Korean Christians were persecuted and put
to death for not following the Confucian ritual of worshiping the souls of their ancestors. Yet
the Catholic Church continued to grow and, by 1865, there were some 23,000 converts. A year
later the largest wave of persecutions of Christians began. From 1866-1872 at least 8,000 Korean
Christians and nine illegal French missionaries were killed (Lew, 28-29).
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.
1. Why might Korea under the Confucian Chosŏn dynasty have been an especially fertile
ground for Christianity to take root?
2. What other religion that existed in Korea might have appealed to lower classes in a similar
manner as Christianity? How might this other religion have been hindered in attracting new
followers?
3. Why did the government care which religion people practiced?
READING 3: INTRODUCTION OF PROTESTANTISM, CHRISTIANITY 1880s-1910s
Excerpts from:
Clark, Donald. Christianity in Modern Korea. New York: The University Press of America,
1986.
Kang, Wi Jo. Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: a History of Christianity and Politics.
Albany: SUNY Press, 1997.
By 1800, missionary activities and Korean practice of Christianity had been officially outlawed
in Korea:
While the Korean Catholic community was suffering in the nineteenth century, the
Protestant faith was also putting down roots. In Chinese Manchuria, in the 1870s, Scottish
missionaries studied Korean and then translated scriptures, which they passed to traveling
Korean merchants. The merchants in turn set up small family congregations in Korea.
Protestant missions to Korea began in 1884 when Dr. Horace N. Allen was transferred
from the Presbyterian Mission in China. To gain access to Korea, he came not as a
missionary but as a physician to the U.S. delegation in Seoul. A short lived palace coup in
December 1884 gave him the chance to heal the wounds of a Korean prince, thereby
earning the gratitude of the king and permission to start a clinic (Clark, 6).
We can see how rapidly the Protestant community grew when in 1912 an American missionary
described its assets as including:
Approximately 330 foreign missionaries, 962 schools, a medical college, a nurse’s training
school, 13 hospitals, 18 dispensaries, an orphanage, a school for the blind, a leper asylum,
a printing press, 500 churches, a Christian community of 250,000, property worth
approximately one million dollars and annual expenditures of over 250,000 dollars (Kang,
48-49).
Protestant Churches also continued the Catholic church’s practice of translating texts and writing
hymns in han’gul, the Korean script developed by King Sejong’s advisors in the 15th century but
not widely used until the 1880s when its use by the Christian community helped promote its
acceptance. Yangban (noble) scholars were educated in Chinese characters and typically used
them to read and communicate. Lower classes, which had no opportunities to attend school,
usually did not read and write at all, let alone in a foreign language. The phonetic han’gul
alphabet was much more accessible, especially in the new schools opened by Christian
missionaries.
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.
1. How was the first Protestant missionary able to legally gain entrance to Korea?
2. Besides their spiritual message, what else did the Protestant community have to offer which
might have attracted interest and converts?
3. How did the churches’ actions positively identify it with Korean nationalism?
READING 4: KOREAN CHRISTIANITY UNDER JAPANESE OCCUPATION
1910-1945
Excerpts from:
Clark, Donald. Christianity in Modern Korea. New York: The University Press of America,
1986.
The Japanese formally annexed Korea and governed it from 1910 to 1945. Christian
leaders were prominent in groups organized to awaken Korean resistance to colonization.
The church itself was seen by many as a refuge from Japanese rule. Its organization and
networks posed political problems for the Japanese. Foreign missionaries wrote letters
home with frank reports about Japanese oppression. They also taught about freedom and
democracy. Thus, from the start, the Japanese were apprehensive about Christianity in
Korea. They set out to neutralize the church and to co-opt the missionaries (Clark, 8).
The Japanese colonial administration issued a series of orders:
…Requiring church institutions such as schools and hospitals to meet government
standards for staffing and facilities. These included a requirement that religion not be part
of the regular school curriculum. This rule eliminated the raison d’etre [reason to exist] for
most church and mission-related schools. At this point, churches virtually abandoned
elementary education to the government. Higher academies were forced to teach religion
after hours and, in some cases, off campus, generating a bitter dispute among the
missionaries about whether or not they should be in education at all. Together, foreign and
Korean church leaders felt the pressure and most missionaries came around to the view that
the Japanese regime was an enemy of religious freedom (Clark, 9).
The March First 1919 Independence Movement was a pivotal event in modern Korean
history. The Korean Declaration of Independence proclaimed on that day had 33
signatories, of whom 15 were Christians. Christians circulated copies of it underground.
Christian groups organized rallies and demonstrations across the country. The fury of the
kempeitai [Japanese military police] came down hard on the Christian community. Church
leaders were rounded up, followers were beaten and shot and in one instance guards locked
a congregation inside a church and set it ablaze, killing everyone within. Clearly,
Christians were a target in the aftermath of the March First Movement and the Church
suffered heavily. Yet it continued to grow despite this—or because of it, as some would
argue, for the Korean church prides itself on its willingness to endure adversity (Clark, 9-
10).
During the 1930s the colonial government began to require all Korean citizens to honor the
emperor and Japanese state by worshipping at Shinto shrines. Many Korean Christians went
along with this and the Vatican itself declared this was a political, not religious, duty and Korean
Catholics should obey the rules of the state. However, some Protestants declared such action
equivalent to idol worshipping and they publicly resisted. These resisters often suffered severe
persecution and even death. After the end of the war this was a source of conflict within the
Christian community—there were bitter feelings between those who had cooperated with the
Japanese and those who had resisted that led to the division of some congregations.
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.
1. Why did the Korean Christian churches continue to grow despite harassment by the
Japanese colonial government?
2. How did conditions under the Japanese create tension within the Christian community?
READING 5: KOREAN CHRISTIANITY SINCE 1945
The Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945. Even though North Korea previously had a large
concentration of Christians and the new leader Kim Il Sung had himself been raised Christian,
under his strict interpretation of communist doctrine, all religious activities were suppressed.
During the Korean War, Christians, who were seen as likely American sympathizers, were
specially targeted for imprisonment, torture and death.
South Korea emerged from the Korean War with most of its agricultural and industrial base
destroyed and its economy in shambles. The South Korean government and population focused
their efforts on rebuilding and joining the ranks of the modern, developed nations of the world.
They were very successful in this endeavor. South Korea’s per capita GDP was 20 times higher
in 2000 than it was in 1950. In 2001 South Korea’s economy was the 11th largest in the world.
Partly in order to achieve these results and partly due to this success, Korean society has
undergone many significant changes. Women have joined the workforce in large numbers and
the work day for most employees and school children has significantly lengthened. Millions of
people have left their small towns and agricultural villages, moving cities where they seek better
jobs and educational opportunities for their children. Today, 83% of South Koreans live in urban
areas, especially Seoul, which now contains nearly half of the country’s total population.1
The growth of Christianity in South Korea has mirrored the tremendous growth of the economy.
During and after the Korean War, Christian aid organizations were among the most effective
groups in providing the people with food, shelter, clothing and other types of material relief.
Many people, grateful for the help, became interested in the teachings of the church and
converted. In 1957 it is estimated that South Korea’s Christian population numbered about 1.85
million. However, it was during the following three decades that the number of Christians in
South Korea really took off. In the 1960s and 70s churches became active in the democratic
movement, strengthening the perception that Christianity was a social force for good.
By 1978, there were approximately 6.5 million Christians in South Korea and today some
estimates put the figure as high as 21 million (this may not be entirely true, see CIA World Fact Book).
Seoul is home not only to the world’s largest
church, Yoido Full Gospel, but also several close runners up. Yoido Full Gospel Church claims
more than 800,000 members and its main church building seats up to 12,000. The church runs
several services each Sunday and has numerous annex churches throughout Seoul and other parts
of the county. Like many other Korean churches, it sponsors youth groups, Bible study classes
and social events for its members, including music and sports activities. It encourages its
members to get involved in missionary and charity work and has helped to set up counseling, job
training and child care programs. Yoido’s motto is “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou
mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (John 3:2), seems to resonate with
thousands of South Koreans striving to improve their lives in the fast paced modern world.2
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.
1. Why might Christianity have benefited from the push towards modernization and economic
growth and eventually democracy?
2. What did churches offer that might have attracted followers during this time of tremendous
change in South Korea?
- describe the emergence of the Christian community in Korea.
- explain why Christianity gained more adherents in (South) Korea than in other East Asian nations.
To begin, create a document in which you have a chart similar to the one below. Use this as a foundation to document the information you need to record the timeline of Christianity in Korea.READING 1: ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN CHURCH
Excerpts from:
Clark, Donald. Christianity in Modern Korea. New York: The University Press of America,1986.
Kang, Wi Jo. Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: a History of Christianity and Politics.
Albany: SUNY Press, 1997.
The first Korean contact with Roman Catholicism is reported to have come through the Japanese
soldiers who invaded Korea in 1592. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent his troops to conquer
Korea, a Roman Catholic general, Konishi Yukinaga, was among them. About eighteen thousand
Catholic soldiers were in General Konishi’s division. The soldiers were Japanese converts, the
result of missionary work by St. Francis Xavier, who came to Japan in 1549, and his Jesuit
successors. The Japanese general also brought along a Jesuit missionary, Father de Cespedes.
However, it appears de Cespedes’ ministry was limited exclusively to the Japanese soldiers and
there is no evidence that it had any direct influence on the native Koreans (Kang, 1).
__
The Korean Church began with a small group of eighteenth-century Confucian scholars, who
found themselves out of favor with the government. Yi Pyok and his friends felt Korean
Confucianism could be invigorated through a clearer understanding of man’s relation to nature—
“the investigation of things.” Among the texts studied by these scholars was a smuggled copy of
The True Doctrine of the Lord of Heaven, a Chinese work by the seventeenth-century Jesuit
missionary Matteo Ricci. Ricci’s description of the Christian god seemed much like their idea of
the neo-Confucian Supreme Ultimate and they decided to learn more. This was risky. The Pope’s
condemnation of ancestor worship in neighboring China had scandalized Korean Confucians.
The church was therefore regarded as hostile to the Confucian order of the Chosŏn dynasty.
The scholars decided to send a representative to Peking. Yi Sunghun, was the son of a recently
appointed Korean envoy bound for China in 1783. They persuaded him to accompany his father,
find out everything he could and bring back books. Yi Sunghun did more: in Peking he became a
Christian himself and was christened Peter, a name suggesting his destiny as founder of the
Korean church. When he returned home in 1784, he carried books, crucifixes, images and
information about Christian rituals. Then he joined with Yi Pyok to found a small lay
congregation of Catholics. This was Korea’s first known Christian church (Clark, 5).
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.1. Why do you think the first time Christianity entered Korea, it attracted no converts and had
basically no influence on the Korean people or society?
2. What is unique about how the first Christian church was established in Korea as compared to
the formation of early churches in other parts of the non-western world?
3. How might this unique start have continued to influence how Christianity is regarded in
Korea?
READING 2: GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY, 1780s–1880s
Excerpts from:
Cho, Kwang. “The Meaning of Catholicism in Korean History.” The Founding of Catholic
Tradition in Korea, edited by C. S. Yu, 115-140. Ontario: Korean and Related Studies
Press, 1996.
Lew, Young Ick. A Brief History of Korea. New York: The Korea Society.
Christianity took root in Korea during the middle of the Chosŏn kingdom. This kingdom had
come to power in 1392 after overthrowing the weakened Koryŏ kingdom. Koryŏ, in addition to
having been overrun by the Mongols, was seen as removed from the people and corrupt.
Buddhism, the state religion under Koryŏ, was associated with this corruption: pampered
Buddhist monks served as advisers to the king and temples had amassed huge quantities of
wealth. When the Chosŏn kingdom came to power they nationalized the land of all but a few
Buddhist temples and severely limited the activities of Buddhist monks in cities and major towns.
Buddhist temples continued to exist in remote mountain areas but Buddhism was not longer used
by kings to legitimate their rule. In place of Buddhism, the Chosŏn leaders emphasized a strict,
intellectual brand of state sponsored Confucianism. It took time for Confucian beliefs and
cultural practices to trickle down to the common people, but by the eighteenth century Confucian
social practices were dominant in Korea. It was in this environment the first Catholic church was
formed in Korea
The earliest Christian converts in Korea were from the scholarly elite. However, this new
religion soon began to spread to other segments of Korean society. Christianity may have been
especially attractive to lower class Koreans, because, in addition to a promise of life after death
in heavenly paradise, Christian teachings made reference to the equality of all people before god.
For instance, one western missionary recorded an account of Hwang Ilgwang, an early convert to
Christianity who came from the class of butchers, one of the lowliest groups in Korean society.
He was so amazed that “believers who came from the yangban (noble or 'gentry') class treated him equally
and accorded him the honor of entering the room and taking a seat” that, supposedly, he
exclaimed for himself there were two paradises, one on earth because of the manner in which he
was treated despite his background, and the other in heaven (Cho, 118).
Women made up a large portion of the early Christians converts. They were able to participate in
the religious and social life of the church. Furthermore, the Catholic church’s condemnation of
forced marriage, of husbands taking a concubine or a second wife, and its favorable view of
allowing widows to remarry, might have made the Catholic church seem a welcoming place to
some women.
The Chosŏn government however, viewed the new Catholic Church as dangerous. Christianity
was outlawed through a special royal edict in 1785. Korean Christians were persecuted and put
to death for not following the Confucian ritual of worshiping the souls of their ancestors. Yet
the Catholic Church continued to grow and, by 1865, there were some 23,000 converts. A year
later the largest wave of persecutions of Christians began. From 1866-1872 at least 8,000 Korean
Christians and nine illegal French missionaries were killed (Lew, 28-29).
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.1. Why might Korea under the Confucian Chosŏn dynasty have been an especially fertile
ground for Christianity to take root?
2. What other religion that existed in Korea might have appealed to lower classes in a similar
manner as Christianity? How might this other religion have been hindered in attracting new
followers?
3. Why did the government care which religion people practiced?
READING 3: INTRODUCTION OF PROTESTANTISM, CHRISTIANITY 1880s-1910s
Excerpts from:
Clark, Donald. Christianity in Modern Korea. New York: The University Press of America,
1986.
Kang, Wi Jo. Christ and Caesar in Modern Korea: a History of Christianity and Politics.
Albany: SUNY Press, 1997.
By 1800, missionary activities and Korean practice of Christianity had been officially outlawed
in Korea:
While the Korean Catholic community was suffering in the nineteenth century, the
Protestant faith was also putting down roots. In Chinese Manchuria, in the 1870s, Scottish
missionaries studied Korean and then translated scriptures, which they passed to traveling
Korean merchants. The merchants in turn set up small family congregations in Korea.
Protestant missions to Korea began in 1884 when Dr. Horace N. Allen was transferred
from the Presbyterian Mission in China. To gain access to Korea, he came not as a
missionary but as a physician to the U.S. delegation in Seoul. A short lived palace coup in
December 1884 gave him the chance to heal the wounds of a Korean prince, thereby
earning the gratitude of the king and permission to start a clinic (Clark, 6).
We can see how rapidly the Protestant community grew when in 1912 an American missionary
described its assets as including:
Approximately 330 foreign missionaries, 962 schools, a medical college, a nurse’s training
school, 13 hospitals, 18 dispensaries, an orphanage, a school for the blind, a leper asylum,
a printing press, 500 churches, a Christian community of 250,000, property worth
approximately one million dollars and annual expenditures of over 250,000 dollars (Kang,
48-49).
Protestant Churches also continued the Catholic church’s practice of translating texts and writing
hymns in han’gul, the Korean script developed by King Sejong’s advisors in the 15th century but
not widely used until the 1880s when its use by the Christian community helped promote its
acceptance. Yangban (noble) scholars were educated in Chinese characters and typically used
them to read and communicate. Lower classes, which had no opportunities to attend school,
usually did not read and write at all, let alone in a foreign language. The phonetic han’gul
alphabet was much more accessible, especially in the new schools opened by Christian
missionaries.
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.1. How was the first Protestant missionary able to legally gain entrance to Korea?
2. Besides their spiritual message, what else did the Protestant community have to offer which
might have attracted interest and converts?
3. How did the churches’ actions positively identify it with Korean nationalism?
READING 4: KOREAN CHRISTIANITY UNDER JAPANESE OCCUPATION
1910-1945
Excerpts from:
Clark, Donald. Christianity in Modern Korea. New York: The University Press of America,
1986.
The Japanese formally annexed Korea and governed it from 1910 to 1945. Christian
leaders were prominent in groups organized to awaken Korean resistance to colonization.
The church itself was seen by many as a refuge from Japanese rule. Its organization and
networks posed political problems for the Japanese. Foreign missionaries wrote letters
home with frank reports about Japanese oppression. They also taught about freedom and
democracy. Thus, from the start, the Japanese were apprehensive about Christianity in
Korea. They set out to neutralize the church and to co-opt the missionaries (Clark, 8).
The Japanese colonial administration issued a series of orders:
…Requiring church institutions such as schools and hospitals to meet government
standards for staffing and facilities. These included a requirement that religion not be part
of the regular school curriculum. This rule eliminated the raison d’etre [reason to exist] for
most church and mission-related schools. At this point, churches virtually abandoned
elementary education to the government. Higher academies were forced to teach religion
after hours and, in some cases, off campus, generating a bitter dispute among the
missionaries about whether or not they should be in education at all. Together, foreign and
Korean church leaders felt the pressure and most missionaries came around to the view that
the Japanese regime was an enemy of religious freedom (Clark, 9).
The March First 1919 Independence Movement was a pivotal event in modern Korean
history. The Korean Declaration of Independence proclaimed on that day had 33
signatories, of whom 15 were Christians. Christians circulated copies of it underground.
Christian groups organized rallies and demonstrations across the country. The fury of the
kempeitai [Japanese military police] came down hard on the Christian community. Church
leaders were rounded up, followers were beaten and shot and in one instance guards locked
a congregation inside a church and set it ablaze, killing everyone within. Clearly,
Christians were a target in the aftermath of the March First Movement and the Church
suffered heavily. Yet it continued to grow despite this—or because of it, as some would
argue, for the Korean church prides itself on its willingness to endure adversity (Clark, 9-
10).
During the 1930s the colonial government began to require all Korean citizens to honor the
emperor and Japanese state by worshipping at Shinto shrines. Many Korean Christians went
along with this and the Vatican itself declared this was a political, not religious, duty and Korean
Catholics should obey the rules of the state. However, some Protestants declared such action
equivalent to idol worshipping and they publicly resisted. These resisters often suffered severe
persecution and even death. After the end of the war this was a source of conflict within the
Christian community—there were bitter feelings between those who had cooperated with the
Japanese and those who had resisted that led to the division of some congregations.
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.1. Why did the Korean Christian churches continue to grow despite harassment by the
Japanese colonial government?
2. How did conditions under the Japanese create tension within the Christian community?
READING 5: KOREAN CHRISTIANITY SINCE 1945
The Korean Peninsula was divided in 1945. Even though North Korea previously had a large
concentration of Christians and the new leader Kim Il Sung had himself been raised Christian,
under his strict interpretation of communist doctrine, all religious activities were suppressed.
During the Korean War, Christians, who were seen as likely American sympathizers, were
specially targeted for imprisonment, torture and death.
South Korea emerged from the Korean War with most of its agricultural and industrial base
destroyed and its economy in shambles. The South Korean government and population focused
their efforts on rebuilding and joining the ranks of the modern, developed nations of the world.
They were very successful in this endeavor. South Korea’s per capita GDP was 20 times higher
in 2000 than it was in 1950. In 2001 South Korea’s economy was the 11th largest in the world.
Partly in order to achieve these results and partly due to this success, Korean society has
undergone many significant changes. Women have joined the workforce in large numbers and
the work day for most employees and school children has significantly lengthened. Millions of
people have left their small towns and agricultural villages, moving cities where they seek better
jobs and educational opportunities for their children. Today, 83% of South Koreans live in urban
areas, especially Seoul, which now contains nearly half of the country’s total population.1
The growth of Christianity in South Korea has mirrored the tremendous growth of the economy.
During and after the Korean War, Christian aid organizations were among the most effective
groups in providing the people with food, shelter, clothing and other types of material relief.
Many people, grateful for the help, became interested in the teachings of the church and
converted. In 1957 it is estimated that South Korea’s Christian population numbered about 1.85
million. However, it was during the following three decades that the number of Christians in
South Korea really took off. In the 1960s and 70s churches became active in the democratic
movement, strengthening the perception that Christianity was a social force for good.
By 1978, there were approximately 6.5 million Christians in South Korea and today some
estimates put the figure as high as 21 million (this may not be entirely true, see CIA World Fact Book).
Seoul is home not only to the world’s largest
church, Yoido Full Gospel, but also several close runners up. Yoido Full Gospel Church claims
more than 800,000 members and its main church building seats up to 12,000. The church runs
several services each Sunday and has numerous annex churches throughout Seoul and other parts
of the county. Like many other Korean churches, it sponsors youth groups, Bible study classes
and social events for its members, including music and sports activities. It encourages its
members to get involved in missionary and charity work and has helped to set up counseling, job
training and child care programs. Yoido’s motto is “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou
mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (John 3:2), seems to resonate with
thousands of South Koreans striving to improve their lives in the fast paced modern world.2
Questions
Be sure to answer these questions in complete sentences. Be prepared to share your answers.1. Why might Christianity have benefited from the push towards modernization and economic
growth and eventually democracy?
2. What did churches offer that might have attracted followers during this time of tremendous
change in South Korea?
Source: The Korea Society
Author: Elizabeth Rice